Tab for a Cause: The Charity Extension You Need to Install

As college students, the thought of donating money to charity using our very, very limited funds seems almost laughable. But raising and giving money to charitable organizations doesn’t have to involve to be a big, planned event, or someone writing a check; it can be as simple as opening another tab on your browser - literally.

A company has designed a Chrome/Firefox extension that turns the simple, daily act of opening new tabs into a way for users to raise money for charity. All this extension does is replace your usual home page with a page that has a few advertisements loaded onto it. You get to customize the background of the page as well as the different features loaded onto it, such as bookmarks, notes, and the search engine.

Every time you open a new tab, you receive one “heart,” and Tab for a Cause generates revenue through the ads on the page. Then, whenever you want to, you get to donate your hearts to any of the charities partnered with Tab for a Cause, including Action Against Hunger and the Humans Rights Watch. Tab for a Cause will donate an equivalent portion of its revenue to the charity you’ve picked.

(Note: typically the screen displays the time and date as opposed to this Giving Tuesday-specific pop up.)

It’s incredibly simple to use, and it’s making a big difference in the long run. Tab for a Cause has already raised over $650,000 and counting for charity just through its users opening internet tabs. Personally, as a college student who don't have a lot of money to donate otherwise, I love the idea that I can do some good so easily just by going about my daily activities.

One of Tab for a Cause’s creators, Alex Groth, even pointed to this as his reason for creating the extension, saying “In college it doesn’t seem like any donation I can give to a charity is going to be very impactful. And I kind of wanted to create a way where everyone can be giving to charity regardless of your monetary worth at that time.”

No matter if you’re an avid tab-user or someone who likes to only have one tab open at a time, you can easily help make a difference in the long-run with this extension.

Nicole is an interdisciplinary major at AU's School of Public Affairs and a section editor for her chapter of Her Campus. She loves government, social media, pop culture, and social activism, and she hopes to synthesize various elements of these interests into her articles throughout her time writing for Her Campus.